Newsweek: Saudis briefed top Obama official about “underwear bombers” in October; Update: MI5 knew of bomber three years ago

posted at 3:40 pm on January 2, 2010 by Allahpundit

Not just underwear bombers generally, either, but underwear bombers trained in Yemen. I feel about this the way I felt about Napolitano’s “the system worked” comment: It’s almost a shame that it didn’t happen under Bush, just because the fireworks from the media’s outrageous outrage afterwards would have been so spectacular.

As it is, don’t expect more than a few sparklers this time.

The briefing to Brennan was delivered at the White House by Muhammad bin Nayef, Saudi Arabia’s chief counterterrorism official. In late August, Nayef had survived an assassination attempt by an operative dispatched by the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda who was pretending to turn himself in. The operative had tried to kill the Saudi prince by detonating a bomb on his body, but stumbled on his way into the prince’s palace and blew himself up.

Saudi officials initially thought the bomb had been secreted in the operative’s anal cavity. But after investigating the matter more thoroughly, they concluded it had likely been sewn into his underwear, thereby allowing the operative to bypass security checks before his meeting with the prince. A main purpose of Nayef’s briefing for Brennan was to alert U.S. officials to the use of the underwear technique.

U.S. officials now suspect that Nayef’s attempted assassin and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian suspect aboard the Northwest flight, had the same bomb maker in Yemen, intelligence experts tell NEWSWEEK. At the briefing for Brennan, Nayef was concerned because “he didn’t think [U.S. officials] were paying enough attention” to the growing threat from Al Qaeda in Yemen, said a former U.S. intelligence official familiar with the briefing.

Another Saudi official denies that they were worried about Obama not taking Yemen seriously — The One did order airstrikes on AQ camps there before Abdulmutallab made his move — but Newsweek’s red-flag hunt isn’t done. Turns out that Abdulmutallab’s mentor, jihadi cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, posted a heavy-handed warning on his website in October about a “surprise” from Yemen that would make it “the single most important front of jihad in the world,” and that calls made to Abdulmutallab from Aulaqi’s own phone were intercepted by the NSA before Christmas. Combine that with the other leads that various arms of U.S. intelligence had and there was enough info floating around in the system to know in advance that (a) Al Qaeda in Yemen was planning an attack, quite possibly on Christmas, involving a Nigerian, and coincidentally (b) a Nigerian named Abdulmutallab who had gone missing after hooking up with jihadis in Yemen and had spent some time yakking on the phone with Yemeni AQ chieftain Aulaqi was booked to fly on Christmas Day. Nuance. Quoth former FBI agent Ali Soufan, “The system should have been lighting up like a Christmas tree.”

But back to that Saudi briefing for John Brennan, whom you’ll remember as the guy who helped develop the terror watch lists for NCTC that failed in this case and who’s now been assigned to, um, review those lists. In fairness, I’m not sure what anyone expected him to do with the detail about underwear bombs. Even now, after a near disaster, the public’s still not gung ho for whole-body imagers and crotch checks by TSA; rolling out those measures as a pure precaution just in time for holiday travel, when there was bipartisan opposition to it in the House, probably wouldn’t have flown. Brennan could have asked that only travelers from Yemen be put through the special whole-body screening — but that wouldn’t have caught Abdulmutallab. He trained in Yemen but didn’t fly from there: His ticket was purchased in Ghana and he flew from Nigeria to Amsterdam for his connection to Detroit. Had Brennan broadened the inquiry and asked for special screening for all young Muslim males (especially those traveling without baggage), that might have caught him. But as the boss noted earlier this week, that sort of profiling — successful though it may be for Israeli airport security — simply isn’t in the cards politically.

So never mind the detail about the underwear. Here’s the real question, which we’re asking for the second time today: Why wasn’t Yemen given special attention as a potential threat under the circumstances? If, per the Saudis’ tip, Brennan had asked the NCTC to re-review leads related to that country, they may well have connected the dots and nailed Abdulmutallab before he ever got on the plane. What happened?

Update: And the missed red flags just keep on coming. The Brits had a file on this turd three years ago thanks to his jihadist activities while at university in the UK. Only now are we getting a copy.

The security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend.

Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “reaching out” to extremists whom MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London…

British officials have now passed a file to their US counterparts on Abdulmutallab’s activities in Britain while he was a student from 2005 to 2008. It shows his repeated contacts with MI5 targets who were subject to phone taps, email intercepts and other forms of surveillance.

Intelligence officials have defended their decision not to flag Abdulmutallab as a possible terrorist risk. They say he was one of many youths who mix with extremists, but are not themselves thought to be involved in plotting or supporting terrorism.

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Remember folks the law enforcement model does not include stopping crimes it only includes solving them after the fact. SCOTUS has two different rulings since the mid 60′s on this very item. Law enforcement is not there to protect you only to solve the crime afterwards. Now that the “won” has decided to return to the law enforcement model we will see more terrorist attacks.

There was an intentional attempt to ignore ALL the red flags being thrown up. These Communists are looking for any reason possible to declare martial law. They were hoping the Pig Sniffle” flu was going to do it and it failed. It took Obummer 3 days to respond because he was cursing the fact that the Knickerbomber was unsuccessful. The puppet masters are getting desperate because all their attempts to rapidly take down this country is running into stumbling blocks.

They say he was one of many youths who mix with extremists, but are not themselves thought to be involved in plotting or supporting terrorism.

Just like Obowma sat in Wright’s church for 10 years but didn’t believe the racist bile he was spewing, and has had multiple contacts with Ayers and his cronies, but has nothing to do with his radical beliefs, and … and… and..

These reports further state that at the same time Obama will be attempting to keep his Nation from violent disintegration, the tens of thousands of additional troops he will send to Afghanistan are to be ordered to Kandahar where the Americans and their NATO allies will begin their final attempt to secure their TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) pipeline, which without the Western Nations, due to their grave lack of alternative energy resources, and being cut off from these vast Central Asian supplies (which both Russia and China are seeking to insure), are warned will totally collapse.

Obama knew all about the undie-bomber in advance, and decided to do nothing beyond going on vacation.

B+rry’s first response after the terrorist’s failed Christmas bomb attempt is to STUPIDLY announce false “solitary nature” propaganda, and order that no one may use the toilet the last hour of any flight.

When the news breaks now that Obama had been briefed of EVERYTHING in advance, before leaving on vacation, now his TSA STUPIDLY respond with “heightened security” by declaring a Christmas ornament to be a threat requiring a forced diversionary landing of aircraft.

Bozo isn’t smart enough to plan something as you suggest, IMHO. As I said above don’t assume malice when incompetence will suffice, especially when talking about people living in an alternate reality as Bozo and the clown brigade admit they do.

They are really really unable to govern. And all they want to do is campaign and be you know, celebrities and go on TV.

No No! You’ve got it all wrong! The reason this terrorist was able to get on the plane with a bomb was because there were no underwear scanners! It’s all about the scanners, man! We got to strip people naked! That’s why! And people were allowed to go to the bathroom an hour before the flight landed! That’s the other reason! Too much liberty and privacy! It has nothing to do with Obama! There’s too much freedom going on out there!

Intelligence officials have defended their decision not to flag Abdulmutallab as a possible terrorist risk. They say he was one of many youths who mix with extremists, but are not themselves thought to be involved in plotting or supporting terrorism.

Youths mixing with extremists should garner even closer scrutiny. Young people are very impressionable, weak minded and easily swayed. They are the perfect target for extremists.

Freshly minted college grads these days have mush for brains. Why do you think the left has focused their indoctrination efforts on these malleable minds in their formative years? Because their prepubescent brains are like putty, thats why.

Little wonder they get selected to pull the trigger on the detonator in their pampers. Thankfully the tool couldn’t even do that right.

Obama: On hearing the news I was briefed by both Saudi Arabia and British, MI57, er, MI5, I have ordered an immediate and comprehensive review by my staff and all agency heads of all Saudi and MI5 meeting minutes. Let me be clear, I will be asking probing questions throughout the review and even after the review is complete.

There was an intentional attempt to ignore ALL the red flags being thrown up. These Communists are looking for any reason possible to declare martial law. They were hoping the Pig Sniffle” flu was going to do it and it failed. It took Obummer 3 days to respond because he was cursing the fact that the Knickerbomber was unsuccessful. The puppet masters are getting desperate because all their attempts to rapidly take down this country is running into stumbling blocks.

red131 on January 2, 2010 at 6:02 PM

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Finally someone else said what I was thinking!!!
They don’t want to stop these things from happening so that they can declare Martial Law and they can do away with that damned Constitutional thingy – and Obambimao can be fearless leader from now until forever. They know they are toast come November 2010 and 2012.

Keep your powder dry Boys & Girls the Stormtroopers are coming to a town near you, cause they know what’s best for you and I. Dontcha know

Desperately tryin to blame it on Bush but couldn’t! Pinnochios’ string pullers are spinnin like tops… it was:
An isolated incident.
It wasn’t an isolated incident.
The system worked!
The system failed and I’m workin hard to find out why even though I was briefed before Michelle and I and Michelles’ kids went on our fab taxpayer funded vaca!
It was a lone suspect whose in custody ( with miranda and lawyers)!
It was Al Queada!
It wasn’t AlQueada in Yemen but in the Mideast!
It was AlQueada in Yemen and evil Busscchhh didn’t do enough cause he was too busy in Iraq, the uncalled for war against Islamic fanatics!

Me thinks this entire administration is all wee weed up all the time to put this much convoluted crap out!

Who the hell believes a thing this batch of crapweasals says anymore?
How many have to die before someone drags this incompetent bunch of Fascists away from the reigns of power? I hope the CIA has a plan cause it looks like the Repubs don’t or won’t!

Obama knew all about the undie-bomber in advance, and decided to do nothing beyond going on vacation.

maverick muse on January 2, 2010 at 6:14 PM

So old,unspecified intel stating the obvious that Bin Laden wants to strike America was certification to the liberals that Bush knew about 9/11 and didn’t stop it.

Now we have very specific intel that states the means,methods,and country of origin of a major terrorist attack and all we get from liberals and their friends in the Press is that “it’s not Obama’s fault”.

I would never have guessed that so many liberal talking points and bogus conspiracy theories would come back to smack them in the face so badly…so quickly.

From “WAR IS NOW THE ANSWER” to ” OBAMA KNEW AND DID NOTHING!!

This stupendous ignorance would be laughable if weren’t for so many lives being on the line.

“Smart Power” has quickly turned into a bigger joke than “Global Warming”.

So, Bush got vague info in August ‘01 about possible threats regarding the use of aircraft as a weapon against American interests, …

joejm65 on January 2, 2010 at 4:06 PM

No.

Bush asked for a roundup of info on al Qaeda after already asking for plan to be drawn up to attack them rather than swatting at flies and the info in the August 2001 briefing was from a 1998 briefing. It was NOT new info on top of indeed being vague and unverified.

Intelligence officials have defended their decision not to flag Abdulmutallab as a possible terrorist risk. They say he was one of many youths who mix with extremists, but are not themselves thought to be involved in plotting or supporting terrorism.
Youths mixing with extremists should garner even closer scrutiny. Young people are very impressionable, weak minded and easily swayed. They are the perfect target for extremists.

Freshly minted college grads these days have mush for brains. Why do you think the left has focused their indoctrination efforts on these malleable minds in their formative years? Because their prepubescent brains are like putty, thats why.

Little wonder they get selected to pull the trigger on the detonator in their pampers. Thankfully the tool couldn’t even do that right.

And these are the people who want to be entrusted to run our healthcare system, our financial system, our auto industry, etc. They can’t even keep a known security risk like this off an airplane or keep a terrorist doctor in their own ranks from shooting up an army base.

The history of the rise and fall of America will conclude it’s populace simply went completely insane and committed suicide.

I’m not of the camp that says Obama should’ve flown back… but I still say he shouldn’t have waited 3 days to say anything (while rushing motorcades in Hawaii when his buddy’s kid had a minor surfing incident). And after those 3 days, he pulled all of this “lone” extremist crap… Of course, today he was dragged kicking and screaming to admit this has AQ written all over it… and that the system DIDN’T work… unless “the system” is still all about banning the word terrorist and putting out warnings about military vets. That system clearly worked… because the only attack by a military member was by one who hadn’t been to war… and again, he’s just some lone extremist, not a MUSLIM TERRORIST!!!

Anyway…

Even now, after a near disaster, the public’s still not gung ho for whole-body imagers and crotch checks by TSA; rolling out those measures as a pure precaution just in time for holiday travel, when there was bipartisan opposition to it in the House, probably wouldn’t have flown.

But as the boss noted earlier this week, that sort of profiling — successful though it may be for Israeli airport security — simply isn’t in the cards politically.

I could go either way on the body scanners and crotch checks, especially when you’re talking about EVERY passenger. But the argument against racial/religious profiling I heard some liberal make this week was ridiculously stupid. “The guy could just lie and say he’s not Muslim”. It’s not about asking them, it’s about how they’re dressed, where they’re from, and if their name is Mohammad, Akbar, Mahmoud, Abdullah, etc. etc.

Again, I get the “we don’t have the political motivation” argument, but I don’t give a s***. I’m talking about a realistic way to minimize the risk. Pull all of these people aside and do extra levels of screening. The argument will be “what if the guy is white and hasn’t taken a Muslim name”… That’s fine, but the point is to REDUCE the risk… you can’t eliminate it completely. But tell me something, is an 80 year old lady named Edna from Wisconsin more suspicious than a 24 year old dark skinned or black guy named Khalid Mohammad Sharif Makik Omar? Give me an effing break.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention what I came to this post to say in the first place.

Remember all of the heat Bush took (and continues to take) from mainstream lefties and Truthers alike for not doing anything with the vague, non-actionable intelligence report that included mention of Muslims using planes as weapons. Again, this wasn’t some “shock” report with more emphasis than any other…

Yet here we have a guy that everyone seemed to know about, even our own CIA, and yet he was able to launch an attack on a plane over the US (albeit, unsuccessful – by luck). Hey lefties and truthers, did you run out of haterade last November?

Ayaan Hirsi Ali would be profiled because she has a muslim name. Profiling ought to be more particular. Screening has to be more rigorous. The nigerian bomber passed through a machine that scans the body so you don’t carry bombs. The machine was as incompetent as TOTUS. Anyone who has ever visited a radical mosque, even once, should be on a Terror list but someone like Ayaan Hirsi Ali should not. Or Irshad Manji.

Intelligence officials have defended their decision not to flag Abdulmutallab as a possible terrorist risk. They say he was one of many youths who mix with extremists, but are not themselves thought to be involved in plotting or supporting terrorism.

Sorry–Too naive for intelligence officials. The odds are pretty good, if you mix with extremists you just may become one. I wonder how many will be murdered under this admin? CIA and intelligence has had their hands tied. That’s why they were murdered in Afghanistan last week. Too much fear of reprisal from the left and PC. If you want to be safer under these extreme times, you’d better take a few lessons in anti-terror from Mossad. I’d say BO already has blood on his hands from his first year in.

United States Presidents are required to take an “Oath of Office” that they shall ” PROTECT THE UNITED STATES FROM IT’S ENEMIES, BOTH FOREIGN AND ABROAD.”
IS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT THIS ALLEGED PRESIDENT HAS VIOLATED HIS OATH OF OFFICE?
IS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT THIS ALLEGED PRESIDENT HAS FACILITATED, AND CONTINUES TO FACILITATE, ILLEGAL, ISLAMIC TERRORIST COMBATANTS?
IS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT THIS ALLEGED PRESIDENT INTENDS TO THWART THE PROSECUTION OF THESE TERRORIST COMBATANTS BY SUBVERTING THE ESTABLISHED PROCESS TO ISOLATE, INTERROGATE, AND CONFINE THESE PROFESSED TERRORIST COMBATANTS?
IS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT THESE ACTIONS, BY THIS ALLEGED PRESIDENT, DEMONSTRATE SYMPATHY FOR THESE ISLAMIC TERRORIST COMBATANTS AND THEIR TERROR CAMPAIGN?
IS THERE ANY DOUBT THAT THESE ARE IMPEACHABLE OFFENSES AND VIOLATIONS OF HIS “OATH OF OFFICE”?

This reminds me of the PDB titled, OBL determined to strike in the US. Bush stayed on vacation even though Richard Clarke was warning since 01/21/01, and 3000 people died. How many were killed by the underwear bomber?

Won’t we feel so much safer flying when the TSA undresses us on an xray screen. Wait, now their saying it won’t show a bomb. What’s next on their list to keep us safe? How about killing the bad guys’ big guys.

This reminds me of the PDB titled, OBL determined to strike in the US. Bush stayed on vacation even though Richard Clarke was warning since 01/21/01, and 3000 people died. How many were killed by the underwear bomber?

Bill Blizzard on January 3, 2010 at 10:58 AM

Sorry, but not comparable. You need to pay more attention. This was a very specific warning, with an identified and specificied technique. Hell, they damn near knew the date it was going to happen.

If the people at the TOP had made this very specific warning a priority, then Mr. Abdulmutallab would have been stopped. No if, ands, or buts. Somebody high up dropped the ball, and it demonstrates a distinct lack of seriousness in the Obama administration vis-a-vis Islamic terrorism.

If you associate with terrorists, you should be marked a potential terrorist, or at least a sympathizer. All this crap about not being able to police a list of some 500k+ targets is pure stupidity when you realize, as was pointed out this week on Mark Levin, Visa & Mastercard have millions of customers. In all those millions, they can see every purchase you make, where you make it, when you make it. They can flag &/or kill cards with the push of a button the instant they see a suspicious buy. So the federal government can\’t figure out how to adapt that technology?

That, and the Brits need to be more forthcoming with intel. Had that plot worked, the UK and US would not be as close; this could hurt our relationship. As our own agencies still horde intel, the Allies are just as bad, and its going to get more people killed.

The al Qaeda terrorist Christmas Detroit airline underwear-bomber predated the CIA Afghan bombing incident by 5 days. I do not understand why a CIA base in Afghanistan would NOT search/frisk non-US non-CIA personnel entering the premises. Was the base ordered to not frisk the “potential informant” or were the CIA personnel simply incompetent to not have searched the bomber before granting him access to the premises, to successfully kill so many too easily?

Bring in the trained dogs–proving more reliably perceptive than trained CIA agents in guarding and in self defense against threatening invaders, explosives and drugs.

As to why Abdulmutallab wasn’t on a no-fly list, even though his father had reported his radicalization, and he’d been turned down for a British visa, the official said that’s because the information still isn’t getting to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment or TIDE list.

Is this a
1) info sharing problem
2) higher up approval slow in putting names on TIDE list
3) bad government software- are they paying Brennan and others too much and getting squat for software
4) not paying well enough to get highly qualified techs
5) too few clerks to keep up with the death notices from Predator strikes etc

Intelligence officials have defended their decision not to flag Abdulmutallab as a possible terrorist risk. They say he was one of many youths who mix with extremists, but are not themselves thought to be involved in plotting or supporting terrorism.

The youth that mix with extremists SHOULD be the ones searched, sand stopped and delayed and inconvenienced – NOT GRANDMA’S AND NUNS. Dayum – when will Obama and his minions get it that this crap is real and dangerous and they need to give up their pc crap?

Ah, come on now! I thought that the Department of Homeland (In)Security was supposed to stop all of this turf war “stuff” between agencies. What is going to take – another 300 or so American lives lost in an airliner with untold collateral damage on the ground before we finally realize that all we have created is one more massive federal agency? While I personally think that Napolitano is an idiot (but to paraphrase Mark Twain – I repeat myself), she really can’t be blamed for this one. The real answer is to dismantle the department instead of leaving it as a 8000 pound gorilla that does nothing except clog up the works and create more paper (aside from giving the Secretary a job). Let the invidual departments do their job, create a small coordinating staff and move on.